All-American Experience

Rebecca Root
Journalism student at Glasgow Caledonian University and traveler

My Camp America experience was set in the midst of the Pennsylvania valleys meaning that the nearest town was over an hour away. This was Honesdale, where we would spend most of our days off. It was a small town with an all-american look.

A usual day off would involve raiding the Walmart, munching down some decent grub and watching the latest Twilight film.

However, if a more cultured American experience was desired then you needed to head into the town itself. There was a few B&Bs to choose from and all had that homely feeling, but that could just be because the older lady that ran ours suggested we call her "mama."

Although Honesdale wouldn't normally be on a travelers list of places to see in the US, I highly recommend that on any journey, you stop in a small and town. It's places like these where you get a real insight into the culture of a country because there's less of the tourist pulls to distract you.

Honesdale is the kind of white picket-fence neighborhood where swinging benches hang from porches and american flags flap from the beamers, so you wouldn't expect much nightlife. We did however, manage to find one lone bar with music where the residents of Honesdale were just all too interested to see who these crazy kids were.

A large man at the end of the bar, wearing a white suit and sunglasses, stared us down until his minion man came to tell us that drinks were waiting for us at the bar. We were expecting a shot and were astonished when an $11 Pink Flamingo cocktail each was waiting for us. We thanked him and continued to dance but when the other locals joined in the boogie, the gangster man took a huff and stormed out of the bar. His minion warned us that "we'd done it now." Uh oh, upsetting local big wigs may not be a good idea.

We continued to dance with a slight fear lying in our bellies. To dispel it we distracted ourselves by persuading the owner to let us dance on the bar. Now I don't mean slutty style, we just wanted to have a Coyote Ugly moment. But that dream was short-lived as Whitney stumbled and smashed a glass and we were then removed.

The next morning we woke to "mama's" big breakfast. Eating like kings we didn't want to leave but "mama" had other ideas. She'd had complaints of noise and the theft of a flag so was not keen on having us stay any longer. "Mama" was not happy. None of the girls had any knowledge of this flag theft and we all believed we'd been as quiet as can be but the boys sat there in suspicious silence.

Aside from the town's bar, the big must is the Wayne County Fair. If you've ever seen the end scenes of Grease you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. It is an annual event where people come from all over the county to attend. There are rides and animals, and food and music. It's a colourful event and a whole lot of fun.

The best part though, was munching on a corn dog. There's a first for everything and eating a corn dog had always been on my list of things you have to do before you die. It was surprisingly tasty but I think it just wouldn't have tasted right unless I was standing in a random field, surrounded by crazy farm animals and sharing it with my Honesdale crew.